IAD - Gender Development Lesson

Gender Development Lesson

The United Nations has created two main measures for gender inequity (GII and GDI)

Gender Inequality Index (GII)

  • Gender Inequality Index (GII) measures the opportunities provided to women
    • The term inequality is used because no country in the world has a completely equal society for women
    • There is not a country with a perfect score, but that number would be zero, meaning no difference between the treatment of the genders
  • The GII has become the only active measurement for gender used by the United Nations

There are three indicators for the GII:

  • Empowerment (the ability of women to improve their own life politically and economically)
    • Percentage of seats held by women in the legislature (giving women the chance to enact change)
    •        25% in Northern Europe, 10% in MDCs and 5% in LDCs
    • Percentage of women who have completed high school
      • Very high 90%s in MDCs and 80% in LDCs
  • Labor market (the opportunity for women to find gainful employment outside the home)
    • Female participation rate in the labor force (giving women the ability to earn and contribute to the economy)
      • 75% in MDCs and 65% in LDCs
        • Interestingly in the lowest ranked LDCs (Sub-Saharan African countries) more women work outside the home than other LDCs (at the same rate as MDCs)
  • Reproductive (access to healthcare and reproductive services)
    • Maternal mortality rate (number of women who die in child birth – per 100,000 births)
    •       15/100,000 in MDCs and 140/100,000 in LDCs
    • Adolescent fertility rate (number of births to women aged 14 to 19 – per 1,000 women)
      • On average, the earlier a woman has children, the less likely she is to receive further education
      • 20/1,000 in MDCs and 60/1,000 in LDCs

Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)

  • Gender-Related Development Index (GDI) used the same indicators as the HDI (a perfect score does not exist, but would be a 1.0)
    • Reduced by ¾ in LDCs and ¼ in MDCs
    • Standard of living, access to education, and healthcare and longevity
    • It measures the level of development overall and then the level of women compared to men
    • A high score means high development and a small difference between genders and a low score means low development and a large difference between genders
    • Since 1970 the gap has been closing
  • Some national scores: include the US and Canada have scores the 90%, China in the 70%, India in the 60% and Kenya in the 50%

Gender Gap

World Map showing the Gender Gap as measured with GDI

GDI Indicators

  • Average income gap (and GDP ) in MDCs is at a lower percentage then in LDCs - although it seems higher because of the amount (30% or about $15,000)
    • (US women make .78 cents on the dollar that men make - $46,000 average income)
    • (Niger women make .50 cents on the dollar that men make - $240 average income)
  • Education gaps are higher in LDCs
    • 99/100 girls in secondary school in MDCs - 60/100 in LDCs
    • Literacy rates are universally high in North America/Western Europe/Oceania
      • Universally a little bit lower in Latin American and Asia
      • The Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa have the largest gaps in literacy between boys and girls
        • These areas also have the largest difference in female/male school enrollment
      • Life Expectancy is the only measure in which women have the advantage and the difference is greater in MDCs (women live 5-6 years longer on average) than in LDCs (women live 1-2 years longer)
        • Any LDC country with the same life expectancy for men and women will not have good healthcare and will have high maternal mortality rates

United Nations Millennium Development Goals

  • In 2000, the United Nations agreed upon eight goals, which all members would work to achieve by 2015:
    • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
    • Achieve universal primary education
    • Promote gender equality and empower women
    • Reduce child mortality
    • Improve maternal health
    • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
    • Ensure environmental stability
    • Develop a global partnership for development

Matching

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IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS (Images are available in the Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)